A.R.E. Taylor is a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge. He works at the intersection of science and technology studies, social and digital anthropology and media archaeology. His doctoral research was based on fieldwork in the data centre industry and explored the rise of electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) and space weather as threats to data centre security. His current ethnographic project follows the work of technology scientists developing a new digital storage medium that is able to withstand extra-terrestrial environmental conditions. This research investigates how – and to what ends – data storage and digital cultural heritage are being imaginatively connected to outer spaces and science fictional futures. He is currently collaborating with the Uncertain Archives project at the University of Copenhagen and is co-founder of the Black Sky Resilience Group, a network of researchers, policy makers and industry leaders exploring the prospective collapse of digital-industrial society from an interdisciplinary and cross-sector perspective. He is also an Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Extreme Anthropology and one of the co-founders of the Social Studies of Outer Space (SSOS) Network. His research interests include: technology and modernity, futures, outer space, techno-apocalyptic narratives, data preservation and pre-digital nostalgia.
